Week Three - A bump in the road....

Today marks the 3rd week since my surgery and one week that I've been wearing a boot 24/7.  I knew I had pain the last two days on the inside of my ankle (the good side - where there were no sutures removed).  I took off my boot and stocking. There it was!  An ULCER. A pressure sore.  A hole in my skin. (If you want to see it, you can look in the Post-op photos page.)  How in the hell did that happen?  Crap! 

I'm not weight-bearing yet but somehow the metal brace on the side of the boot was pushing on the thin-skinned bone of my inner ankle.  This spot is where the two screws were left from my original surgery on January 13, 2009 when the ankle was shattered and put back together.  The screws have always been so close to my skin that I can press on the ankle and feel the head of one of them!  Dr; Royer removed the plate and screws from the opposite side but left those two screws on the inside of the ankle because screws needed to be in there somewhere - to stabilize the bone to support the new ankle - and since I already had these, he left them there.

I'm going to vent now:  I've been "good" and strictly followed my Doctor's orders - "toes above nose" elevation for 3 weeks, slept with my boot on (and I do use the word "sleep" loosely) and haven't put any weight on it.  Still an ulcer. A definite setback. 

When I called Dr. Royer's office and told them what I had discovered, they wanted me to come as soon as I could get there, and it just happened that my granddaughter Taryn was there to take me.  My Doctor was in surgery all afternoon, so we saw his Physician's Assistant.  She said that they haven't seen an ulcer in a TAR (total ankle replacement) patient before. (so...that means I am the first one?!!)  The sore has got to heal soon because I will be trying to weight bear and start PT in 3 more weeks. Which also means.....wearing the boot again.  The PA made an adjustment to the boot and placed foam higher up where the metal brace was eating into my skin, so hopefully when it heals, I won't have that area break open.  They don't want any infection anywhere near the new ankle so I'm taking more Levaquin and using an antibiotic ointment. 

Here is what I'm wearing now - a removable splint (which looks like a cast).  It has a hard shell on the foot and back of my leg.  I can take it off to shower, and wrap ace bandages around it to hold it on my foot and ankle.

So here we are.  I am trying to not let my thoughts overwhelm me and trust me - alot of them are dark thoughts.  My Mother, who was in excellent health contracted a sudden flesh eating bacteria (Group A strep) and lost her life to it.  There was a family friend who died a couple of months ago  from an open ulcer that didn't heal in her abdominal area.  I can't think about this or I will have the all-too-familiar panic disorder creep its way back into my life again. Ultimately, I have got to stay positive and believe that this is just a bump in the road.

As always, your healing prayers are most appreciated!